Senate bill looks to appropriate funds for new Custer State Park Bison Center

CUSTER, S.D. — A bill could send $500,000 to Custer State Park to help build a bison center.

Senate bill 54, if passed, would allocated a half-million dollars from general funds for the center.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust has donated a grant of four-million dollars to Custer State Park, where the estimated cost of the project is about 5-million dollars.

C.S.P. officials hope that the bison center will help shine a light on something that is the essence of its existence.

“To have something that deepens that story and to be able to further explain our management practices and our conservation of our bison herd is going to be incredible, because it’s the main staple of the park and why a majority of our visitors come,” said Kobee Stalder, Visitor Services Program Manager for Custer State Park.

Custer State Park has raised $175,000 of the original $500,000 it was planning to raise for the center.